


Starting Off With a Bang

by displayheartcode



Series: Normal is the Watchword [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, coffee shop AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-16
Updated: 2014-06-16
Packaged: 2018-02-04 23:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1796623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/displayheartcode/pseuds/displayheartcode
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a scale of getting a job to almost getting eaten by a hydra, how are you surviving college?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starting Off With a Bang

**Author's Note:**

> As one can tell, I was clearly inspired by the Dresden Files and the Percy Jackson series. 
> 
> Fun fact: Wight is regarded as a supernatural being.

  
"You! You're in my criminology class! I knew your name, but I couldn't remember why!"

"Our boss turned into a monster and tried to eat us, and all you're going on about is that we share a class?" Brian said, pushing his way through the crowded street. "Wow, you're good."

I caught up to him easily. Adrenaline buzzed underneath my skin as my mind relayed what had happened just only minutes ago: I'd turned up for my first day at working at a coffee shop, I'd ran into Brian who also started his first day there, and our boss had turned into some multi-headed snake monster that tried to eat us.

I'd used my minimal abilities with magic to save our lives, and it turned out that I wasn't the only one with some sort of preternatural skills on campus—Brian had set the thing on fire. With his mind.

It was really cool.

"What are you?" I asked. Questions started to rapidly fire off my tongue. "Is there more like us? What was that? Holy crap, how did you do that Carrie thing—"

Brian stopped walking in the middle of the street and turned around to face me. The edges of his curly hair were singed. "You honestly have no idea that he was a hydra?"

"Well, so did you," I said. "You were looking just as surprised as me."

His coppery cheeks turned pink and he averted his gaze. "I'm not going to explain everything to you out on the street. And it's not a Carrie thing," he insisted.

Yeah. Two college-aged students wearing aprons that smelled like smoke and had ashen faces weren't going to be a common sight in a town like this. Already, we were attracting looks and people were going to form the oddest conclusion about what had happened. 

Especially if they saw the giant, burning hole in one of the walls of the coffee shop.

"What do I call that fire thing, then? Pulling a Zuko or a Firestarter?" I asked. "Oh! I know! You did a—"

"Shut up." Brian grabbed me by the elbow and dragged me down a different sidewalk. "Really, shut up. I'm trying to think." 

"Are there more like us? Ever since those weird guys in suits came by a few years back, I've tried to stay off their radar and I haven't really met—"

This time he was actually looking at me. "The Council? The Wight Council paid you a visit?" He let go of my arm as if it was a hot skillet.

"Yeah, and they told me that I shouldn't be playing in cemeteries like that anymore. Like, how was I supposed to know that I would accidentally set off some zombies?" I stopped speaking and realized what I had said. "You think I'm some nutcase, magic-using criminal now, don't you?"

"You're starting to look like it." Brian stood further away from me. He was rubbing a bracelet that he wore on one wrist. It was the same bracelet that had made some sort of magical shield that had stopped our faces from getting dissolved from poison from the attack. Multiple snake heads had meant multiple things of fire and poison being aimed at us. "Listen, I'm sure that you're a nice guy, but I have a problem that I need to go solve."

"Does it involve setting more things on fire?" I asked plainly. 

A mother nearby pulled her daughter closer to her, a family of three actively walked away and around us, and an elderly lady gave me a sour glare.

There was a beat of silence between Brian and I.

"Merde, you really are that clueless." He shook his head sadly. "Do you know what you are?"

"Necromancer—but I can do other stuff!" The leftover adrenaline fueled the excitement, so I cupped my hands together and said, "If I concentrate hard enough—"

Brian's hands covered mines and he gave them a warning squeeze. His touch felt cold, and carried a small shock. "Don't," he said in a low voice. "Do you want to get another visit from the Wight Council for doing magic in front of mortals?"

"Well. Maybe they'll leave something more than a pamphlet?" I snapped. "I'll tell you what I know: Magic and monsters are real, and that includes a bunch of stuff that I don't know about; I can do cool stuff with the dead and some other tricks like with fire; and the rest about whatever community we're a part of is from a pamphlet that looks like it was printed back in the 80's. I need your help."

Brian closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath that sounded like numbers. After reaching one, he let go of my hands. "I'll tell you what you want to know, but first I have to figure out who'd sent a hydra to that coffee shop." He opened one eye. "You can come with me, but you have to promise to keep that big mouth of yours close."

I mimed zipping my lips shut and throwing away the key.

"Good," he said, and started walking. "Let's go find out who wants to barbecue us."


End file.
